Just curious: What is with all the sagging Taurus/Sables?

I always thought spec Taurus would be a great idea. Hell, throw some Luminas and Intrepids in there, too. It would be like NASCAR, only the cars are real.

I had one, a 98 Mercury (dis)Sable AKA Mercury LeSable. Duratec, highly optioned, highly hail damaged, very cheap. It was a great car other than the fuel economy, mid 20s, unlike the 3.1 GM W Bodies that would do low 30s all day on the freeway. Bought for $1000, changed the oil and brakes, drove it for 9 months, never registered it, sold it for $1500.

The sagging rear end is a few things.

1. The cars actually had a lower ride height in the rear from new.
2. Cheap parts and overloaded by fat Americans for 20 years.
3. Struts slip down in their perches over the years.

I fixed mine by disassembling the rear end and tack welding new stops on the struts where they went into the knuckles, got an easy 1" rise out of it and it looked right.

You can also order a Moog "cargo rated" spring

What, no Robocop references yet?

'93 SHO 5-speed with low oil pressure, NMNA:

http://quadcities.craigslist.org/cto/5159548105.html

In reply to The_Jed:

Low oil pressure = needs new rod bearings......its a 120k mile service item.

Broken springs if front, just plain worn out if rear.

These chassis tended to be heavily overloaded all the time.

A friend of mine has a 2000 Taurus with the Civil War-era Vulcan V6. He's had it since around 2003. Until recently, It hasn't needed anything outside of regular maintenance. I think it recently got new fuel lines and a fuel pump, and that's been the biggest issue with it. He's not a car guy, so he just keeps it going until it won't go anymore.

Knurled wrote: Broken springs if front, just plain worn out if rear. These chassis tended to be heavily overloaded all the time.

Also a factor at play, the rear fender openings are lower on the body line than the front, which adds to the appearance. It is a common issue we refer to as S.A.S. (Saggy Azz Syndrome) though.

The real reason? The Taurus has a two-body trunk but mob guys always try to cram that third body in there.